This scene test explores the way movement can reveal and obscure, and also emphasises the importance of subtle movements. This is an exploration of the scene, but I’d like to make the actual shots longer to really magnify the movements and timing.
I wanted to emphasise stillness here to capture the tense and ambiguous mood between the characters, as the knight asks the maiden about the unicorn’s capture, and then is questioned themself. I also thought having little movements was important to bring the illusion of life to this piece, as in its final form it will look like a tapestry. Thus these little movements will bring immersion to the tapestry’s world. Hence, animation is able to marry the aesthetic of the tapestry and bring life into it with these little movements. It also gives me the ability to manipulate this setting, by moving the trees and scenery around to reveal the character in an immersive way.
The subtlety of the movement and not showing the characters talking is inspired by the concept of ‘ma’ in Miyazaki films. ‘Ma’ is the empty space used to let the audience ruminate on what has happened and what comes next. This concept of ‘ma’ influenced the thinking behind showing visuals other than the characters talking when they are talking. Instead, when the knight is talking the nature is shown, keeping the feelings of the characters mysterious and giving the audience a moment of pause. Then when the maiden responds, the knight is shown, and we see him turn and focus is directed to a character in the background. This hints towards the character in the background, alludes to the knight's own feelings and gives pause to consider the crime which had occurred in the tapestry.
Initially. I found thinking about movement in my project quite constrained. I knew I wanted the movement not to stray too far from how the characters look like they would move in the planes of the tapestry. Hence I chose to consider scene 3, as the original tapestry behind the scene is fragmented, and thus I had more room to play with framing. I then thought about how I could push the movement in the scene without betraying the mood of the piece.
Youtube link: https://youtu.be/f5fheJVm3wM